November 14, 2012

I just downloaded a slew of new albums from Plixid.com. Here are my thoughts on some of them.

Lilly Wood and the Prick

The French duo of Nili Hadida and Benjamin Cotto formed Lilly Wood and the Prick in 2006 and have put out two albums — 2010’s Invincible Friends and this year’s The Fight.

I admittedly don’t know The Gossip’s catalog well at all, but Hadida’s vocals are reminiscent of that group’s front woman, Beth Ditto, particularly in the key of The Gossip’s “Standing In the Way of Control”.

The Fight opens strong with “Where I Want To Be (California)” and maintains a nice level throughout.

Here’s the band’s first single off its debut album.

Elvy

From the opening note of Elvy’s recent release, Misery Needs Company, it’s clear what the listener is in for — ukulele-powered indie-folk.

Thankfully, the ukulele is not at all overpowering and generally provides a nice foundation for Elvy’s soft lyrics.

As the album progresses, he starts to incorporate more piano, nowhere more masterfully than on the closer, “Light”.

As a sidenote, the song “Aging Love” reminded me of a Nirvana acoustic song — one from the MTV Unplugged album that I can’t quite place.

The album, which came out in June, is actually the second full-length release of the year by the Belgian singer/songwriter. He put out The Home and the World in March. Prior to that, he released three albums in a two-year period from January 2004 to January 2006.

Caviare Days

The Swedish sister act Caviare Days gets its name from a line in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. While their name derives from 1930s literature, their sound is far more modern and eclectic.

Starting with an indie rock base, Lina and Maja Westin infuse their music with equal parts electro and psychedelia and seem to touch on several other genres throughout their self-titled debut album.

“Fresh Tomatoes” sounds like something that might have come out of England or San Francisco in the late 1960s. Meanwhile, “High” is filled with horns that give it an almost gypsy rock feel. And “Shut the Door” is just straight-up garage rock.

Press Gang Metropol

The debut album from Press Gang Metropol reminds me of how all of the best post-punk bands from the ’80s and early ’90s probably would sound now if they tried to put out an album.

And with good reason, since three of the four members of this French band previously played together throughout the ’90s in the coldwave band Corpus Delicti, which reached cult status in their homeland after breaking up in 1996.

After going on to several solo and side projects, the three main cogs regrouped toward the end of the last decade and were joined by a fourth member. And they finally put out their first full-length disc this year.

At its best, Checkpoint, mixes the vocals of Psychedelic Furs with the signature guitar strains of Joy Division. On songs such as “Empire Square”, “Sound/Wave” and “Parade”, it’s conceivable that they were recorded 30 years ago.

However, the rest of the album is just filled with derivative tunes that wouldn’t have even been a B-side for one of those aforementioned iconic bands.